Gabi the Terrorist Meets a Terrible End
by Brooke Chiang
Summary: Alternate story of Attack on Titan characters set in the Syrian Civil War in 2018
1. Chapter 1

Khmeimim Air Base of the Russian Air Force in Hmeimim, Latakia Governorate, Syria...

Sergeant Floch Brusov of the Russian Naval Infantry finished his patrol rounds at the perimeter of the base, and returned to the security office.

"So you're back, Sergeant," His superior, Captain Boris Lobov, snuffed out a cigarette and lifted his assault rifle, slinging it over his back. "I guess it's time for my shift, huh?"

"Y-Yes, sir," Floch acknowledged.

"Don't be so uptight, Lieutenant," Lobov jabbed Floch in the ribs. "I heard from Lieutenant Kirstein that there's a big shipment of vodka that just arrived from Sevastopol. We should have round tonight."

"Yes, Captain!" Floch saluted.

As the Captain walked off, an Air Force pilot came up to them. "Hi Floch! I prepared some meat in the mess hall. You interested? Jean is already there."

"Sasha," Floch rolled his eyes. "Is eating all you can think about? Why are you here anyway?"

"I'm on my way to the hangar! My friend in the Air Force, Connie, is on a mission and his squadron should be returning any time now."

Floch nodded disinterestedly. "Yeah, yeah, whatever then. I won't keep you."

Twenty-Five Kilometers away in downtown Latakia City, Syria…

Falco Grice looked up to sky watching a dozen fighter jets scream overhead. Sometimes he wished he could be like them, soaring away to somewhere… somewhere far away, far from all this…

"Damn fucking Russians!" Falco's companion, Gabi Braun was much less impressed. "I heard they hit Idlib again during the night!"

Over the past few weeks, the Russian and Syrian Air Forces had heavily-bombed Idlib in northwest Syria, indiscriminately killing rebels, terrorists, and civilians alike. Meanwhile, on the ground, the Assad regime forces, aided by fighters from the Shia Islamist terrorist group Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist group Liwa al-Quds, continued their brutal advance into Idlib, often executing rebel prisoners, regime opponents, and civilians accused of sympathizing with the rebels, usually without trial or mercy.

Falco sighed despondently, dragged back to reality by Gabi's vehement exclamations. "Yeah, well what can we do about it?"

Thousands of soldiers and mujahideen far more experienced than us have fought and perished fighting against the Assad regime and their Russian infidel allies. We couldn't even defeat the damn Hezbollah takfiris!" Falco referred to the Lebanese Shiite Islamist terrorist group which supported the Assad regime.

"Well, it's time we changed things around and got some revenge!" Gabi gnashed her teeth. "They- they are all infidels and takfiris! We must kill them all! We can't forgive… what they did to us!"

Irrelevant Historical Footnotes:

Three years ago, on June 22, 2015, seven radical Islamist Taliban attacked the Afghan National Assembly (Parliament) in an attempt to assassinate Afghan's new defense minister, Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai. One Taliban detonated himself in a suicide attack, and the other six died in combat against Afghan security forces. Two civilians were killed and 40 civilians were wounded.

Six years ago, on June 22, 2012, the corrupt and incompetent socialist President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo was impeached, and succeeded by his social liberal Vice President, Federico Franco. This would bring down the short-lived but disastrous socialist regime of Paraguay, and fatally weakens both the socialist Patriotic Alliance of Change and the liberal Authentic Radical Liberal Party. Eventually, this leads to the restoration of the conservative, democratic Colorado Party in 2013, and brought stability back to the country.

However, a group of dangerous, communist hardliners, the Free Fatherland Party (PPL) and the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) continues to wage a guerrilla war in Paraguay's rainforests.


	2. Chapter 2

About three years earlier in November of 2015, in Army of Conquest-held Idlib City, Idlib Governorate, Syria…

Gabi Braun skipped down the street toward her house, carrying the bread and milk she'd bought from the marketplace, humming to herself.

She stopped when she saw her friends, Falco Grice and Udo Abadi, standing by a street corner, deep in conversation. "Falco, Udo, what's up?"

The two boys looked up, startled.

"Hey, Gabi!" Udo greeted.

"G-Gabi! Um, hi!" Falco looked nervous and off-balance.

Gabi mellowed considerably when she got closer and saw the solemn expression on Falco's face. "What's wrong, Falco?"

"Colt wants to join the rebel army to fight against the Assad regime's massacres in Aleppo," Falco fidgeted anxiously.

"That's awesome!" Gabi declared, her excitement getting the better of her, before she fell back into the atmosphere. "I mean, well, I'm sure he can take care of himself… I mean, he's Colt, isn't he?"

"Well, yeah," Falco muttered. "But so many people have already died fighting the Baathists, and now with the Russian airstrikes…" He trailed off.

"Hmpf! That won't change a thing!' Gabi huffed. "Allah is with us! The damned takfiris won't win even if they get help from the Russian infidels!"

Udo shook his head in mild dismay "You're always like that, Gabi. If only things were so easy, we'd have shaken off the Assad regime years ago…" He trailed off as the increasing roar of a sonic boom drowned out his words, and shook the windows of the buildings around him.

"What- what the- ?" Falco cried out in consternation, his voice barely audible over the cacophony. "How are there fighter jets- this deep- !"

Since the rebel Army of Conquest had liberated Idlib from the Assad regime in late March, and other rebel groups successfully pushed government forces out of the entire region, Idlib had been a city deep within rebel territory. Being far behind the war's current front lines, it had so far managed to escape the Russian and Syrian bombings devastating other cities.

Abruptly, a massive series of deafening explosions erupted, just a few blocks away, rocking the very ground beneath them and shaking buildings all around them. Glass shattered, eliciting screams from people unfortunate enough to be standing too close to them, and rickety market stalls collapsed. A hot, raging wind swept by them, nearly knocking the kids over. Gabi dropped the bread and milk she was holding in the chaos, and instinctively clung to Falco.

Then silence, the sound of roaring aircraft having faded amid the explosion, the perpetrators long gone to distant airbases.

"That! That was in the direction of our homes!" Falco's eyes widened in panic. "I- I have to go!" He burst into a sprint, racing toward the heart of the inferno.

"Falco, wait!" Udo shouted, as he and Gabi raced to try and keep up. They ran through debris-strewn streets with burning houses, downed power lines, wounded and dead people littering the streets.

As they rounded a third corner, they found… a hellish inferno. An entire line of houses had been blown to smithereens.

"M-Mom! Dad! Colt!" Falco screamed into the sky as he reached his home. "Allah, why, why the hell did this happen!" He fell to his knees. The Grice home had been right next to the bombing epicenter, and no trace of it remained. Instead, a series of massive, flaming craters were gouged into the place where it once stood, with piles of burning, unrecognizable black debris. There wouldn't be anything left of his family to recover.

Gabi, meanwhile, raced to her own house, a bit farther from the blast, a bit farther from the blast, crying out, "Mom! Dad! Please, Allah, please let them be alright!" Rushing past the scorching flames, she desperately began prying through any bit of the rubble she could. Even when her hands were burned by flames, scraped and cut by broken bricks and glass, she kept digging.

"Hey, you, stay back! It's dangerous!" A voice shouted behind her.

Gabi turned around to see a panicked member of the Free Police shouting to her.

A number of police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, and White Helmet trucks had arrived at the scene. Utterly broken, Gabi stayed kneeling in the rubble, her eyes blank and unseeing. She didn't resist when a police officer took her by the shoulders and gently escorted her to the side, so the firefighters could douse the flames and begin rescue efforts. At long last, the firefighters carried out two black, burnt corpses.

Seeing this, Gabi stumbled forward, her eyes still fixed in a thousand-yard stare. "Mom… Dad…"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Neither Gabi nor Falco would be able to remember quite what happened next- it was all a blur. Udo's family offered to shelter Falco, and Udo's friend Zophia offered to shelter Gabi in her home.

The next day, Udo and Falco went to Zophia's house to see Gabi, they found her still sitting, sleep-deprived and shell-shocked, her hands bandaged and dressed for burns and lacerations, with Zophia trying hard to comfort the poor girl.

"G-Gabi!" Falco burst into tears despite himself, and hugged her. "His tears flowed down his face as he sobbed hysterically and inconsolably.

But Gabi didn't hug him back, only stared near-catatonically at the floor… with her teeth gritted and blazing fury in her eyes. "My home, your home… were destroyed- our parents were slaughtered- burned alive! They didn't even do anything wrong! Why, why do the innocent have to die?!"

"G-Gabi…" Falco stammered, sniveling softly.

"I can't forgive, I just can't! They're infidels- scum unworthy of anything except death and hellfire. They're not human- they're demons- not like us. It's only natural to kill them- I'll find a way… I'll kill every last one of them!"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Irrelevant Historical Fact:

Seven years ago on this day, on July 13, 2011, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1999, admitting South Sudan into the United Nations. South Sudan, which is predominantly Christian and animist, had long chafed under the brutal, oppressive, theocratic reign of Sudan's Islamist military dictatorship (led by Omar al-Bashir and the National Congress Party). From 1983, to 2005, the Second Sudanese Civil War raged, seeing millions dead, many of them civilians murdered by the Islamist Janjaweed, a criminal terrorist group sanctioned by the Sudanese regime. Finally, in 2005, with US support, the South Sudanese were able to drive out the regime forces and gain autonomy. In 2011, South Sudan held a referendum and gained independence from Sudan, establishing a democratic nation.


End file.
